“We are the 99 percent” became a rallying cry across the country last fall. Republican presidential candidates decry “class warfare” and President Obama tries to position himself as a defender of the middle class. The “one percent” became the enemy for a growing percentage of Americans, calling up images of Wall Street bankers with drivers ferrying them from opulent Manhattan offices to posh country estates.
Who are the 1%?
This may be the case for the top of the top one percenters. But not all. Nationwide, the top one percent of earners are identified by the Tax Policy Center as those with a household income of more than $530,000 per year. Their average income is $1.5 million, and richest of the rich — the 120,000 tax filers that make up the top tenth of this group — put away an estimated average income of $6.8 million in 2011. But what happens when we break it down geographically?
Using University of Minnesota Population Center data, this New York Times interactive map makes it easier to envision who the one percent really are in your neighborhood and across the country. In Flint, Michigan, a city hard hit economically for years before the recession became national news, an income over about $179,000 puts you in the top one percent of earners. That wouldn’t even crack the top quarter in Stamford, Connecticut, where you’d have to take in over $900,000 a year to be in the highest percentile. In New York City and northeastern New Jersey you have to put away upwards of $600,000 every year.
Facts and Figures
To better understand who makes up the top 1%, Gallup combined findings from 61 of its nationwide surveys conducted between January 2009 and November 2011. These surveys present a picture of the demographics of the one percent more complete than the black-and-white picture drawn by news reports, comedians, and protesters over the past few months.
The one percent is overwhelmingly white, at 82 percent. They are twice as likely to be married as the population at large — 75 percent versus 51 percent of the general population — and half of the richest American households include minor children. They are most likely to live on the East and West Coasts of the country, with only 14 percent in the Midwest.
What Do the One Percent Do?
The one percent, granted, don’t drive taxis or flip burgers. But they do work, and they work a lot; three times more likely than the 99 percent to work more than 50 hours a week. They are also more likely to be self-employed. Married one percenters are just as likely as other couples to have two incomes, but men are the big breadwinners, earning 75 percent of the money, compared with 64 percent of the income in other households.
Education and Politics
One-third of the wealthiest people in the country identify as Republicans, but more call themselves independents, at 41 percent. More than half, however, say they “lean” Republican regardless of affiliation.
The biggest difference between the one percent and the ninety-nine, after income, is education. Nearly three-quarters of the wealthiest Americans graduated from college, compared to less than one-third of those in the lower 99 percentiles. Almost half went on for post-graduate education, versus 16 percent of the general population. In one of every four married couples in the one percent, both partners have advanced degrees.
3 comments
Cherokeescot
>Higher Education< First off my friends in Europe mostly go for their degrees free of charge. Big difference and a good part of why American industry is in trouble. You just cannot compete under those circumstances. And the ed differential will continue to creep as time goes by leaving the US in the dust. Whose dream is it to graduate with a debt load at over $150,000.00? Nobodys.
Secondly, University professors in the US tend to take huge grants from corporations and rather than being in the classroom where they are supposed to be, they are writing research papers and having grad students teaching in their place.
Thirdly, with the exception of private universities, state legislatures dont seem to realize they own these schools! In private industry the marching orders are here is the budget here is the job and if you cant get the job done within budget we will get someone who can. But in the universities the educators tell the legislators what the price is going to be each year. That, my friends, is totally insane.
And finally, something is amiss. Have you ever noticed the up east prominent universities have been the breeding ground for a majority of the bankers and Wall Street thugs. It is insidious. There must be a culture of training in these universities which creates these sick financiers. It is not like some guy woke up one morning and decided to send all his cronies an email with this "New money making scheme." It has to be the culture within the classroom. You ask yourself how can this be happening and why is American industry in trouble. I tell you that you need to be looking to these very point I bring up here.
thomasbleser
whoops. I should have said "that education is the CAUSE rather than the RESULT of higher income"
thomasbleser
One of the most pathetic rackets that are ripping people off today are those based on the lie that education is the result rather than the cause of higher income. There is no excuse for anyone having to pay for any amount of higher education, and the student loan craze, especially when it comes to loan sharking, is off the charts. I heard a recent report about a guy the government was trying to collect on who was given a degree in truck driving without his prior knowledge and consent and only learned about it when he tried to check up on a government garnisment to his paycheck.